Healer Warren Grossman left his thriving psychotherapy practice after tapping into healing energy and becoming grounded by the earth more than 25 years ago. He's the keynote speaker at the International Holistic Lifestyle Expo in Eastlake.

Woo-woo just isn't woo-woo any more.

Ancient practices from Eastern religions and Native American healers have become mainstream as folks search for nontraditional ways to address their issues.

"The New Age has passed," said healer Warren Grossman, keynote speaker at the International Holistic Lifestyle Expo, set for Saturday and Sunday at the Radisson Hotel & Suites in Eastlake.

Grossman, who 30 years ago contracted a fatal liver parasite in Brazil, became a healer almost accidentally when he became grounded after lying on the earth. A clinically educated scientist with a thriving Shaker psychotherapy practice, Grossman recognized at the time how strange it seemed to fill one's body with nature's energy.

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But after healing himself with that energy when medical science had given up, Grossman turned to healing others, leaving psychotherapy behind. And during a session at 1 p.m. Saturday, he will teach others how to become healers.

"I think it's something we all have within us," he said.

Patti Ann Dooms of Mentor, an organizer of the fifth annual International Holistic Lifestyle Expo, began to explore natural healing more than 25 years ago when she and her husband had five children between them and were without health insurance.

"Buying health insurance had become a choice for our family between eating or housing," she said. "I couldn't imagine that the Garden of Eden and the beginning of mankind had anything do with HMOs or co-pay, so I sat down to learn all the natural ways there are to take care of a family."

During that time she came to know acupuncturists, mediums, massage therapists, spiritualists, hypnotists and drummers and practitioners of reflexology, Reiki and a host of other disciplines.

She also discovered she was far from alone in her quest for nontraditional enlightenment. As many as 1,000 people are expected at the expo, she said.

"People want to learn and be exposed to new things that are as old as mankind," she said. "We worked hard to be sure this event brings together some of this area's greatest thinkers, educators, practitioners, artists, retailers and facilitators."

She's especially pleased that Grossman accepted her invitation to be there.

"He became aware of the energy inherent in nature," she said. "His book 'To be Healed by the Earth' is now in its third printing and has been distributed around the world."

She got a copy of that book as a gift when she achieved her Reiki certification 17 years ago and has referred to it every day since, she said. Like many others, she's become something of a disciple of Warren Grossman,

Tapping into healing energy from the earth isn't foreign to other cultures, Grossman said.

"If you were born in China, you'd know it as 'chi.' If you lived in India you'd call it 'prana,' " he said.

His most recent learning has resulted in a video about healing the feet, an important skill to be grounded with the Earth.

In the process and completely unintended, he said, he discovered the exercises he created end foot pain, increase strength and stability, and improve balance. His 2 p.m. Sunday session will be framed around that, and he'll teach people how to heal their feet.

Psychic medium Tim Brainard, who keeps an office in Willoughby, also believes everyone has some of the same abilities he has.

"I'm a translator," he said. "I translate messages I pick up, often from people who have passed over, and I translate them."

He is also gifted in the sense that he remembers everything that ever happened to him, even as a baby.

"I remember being baptized, for instance," he said. "I didn't understand what was happening, but I remember it. What other people can't see or feel is quite normal to me."

Others who will be on hand include Jim Cipiti of Heart Strings, who sends Reiki energy out through his music into which he incorporates healing, and Michael Searching Bear, who has reached into his heritage to play the Native American wood flute. His playing incorporates barks, trills, chirps and other techniques from nature.

Another presenter is Dr. Terry Gordon, a retired cardiologist who has made it his life's mission to place automated external defibrillators in more than 5,000 schools, He is a motivational speaker and musician and will bring his new book "No Storm Lasts Forever: Transforming Suffering into Insight."